Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Can We Truly Say We Are Christians?

God created man in His image and likeness, male and female; and put man in charge of earth.

God is a Spirit and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Did the disciples call themselves christians? The disciples were first called christians in Antioch because of the way they lived, the character and behaviour they exuded. They lived so much like Christ and because of the similarity or "Christ-like" nature, they were called christians. Jesus went about doing good and healing those that were oppressed of the devil. He went about preaching, teaching and living the word of God. The disciples went about doing the very things Jesus did and living the very life Jesus lived. They lived like Christ so much and that's why they were first called Christians in Antioch.

Are we exuding the very character and behaviour of Christ that made the people in Antioch call the disciples "Christians" or it has simply become a label of pride and arrogance for us to say, "I am a christian"?

Jesus told Nicodemus, "You have to be born-again to see the kingdom of God." The very first time the term "born-again" was used it was by Christ while he still lived on earth. It had to do with a spiritual rebirth and a change of attitude from evil ways to God's ways. Is that what we still mean to be "born-again" or it has also become a badge and label of pride and arrogance to say "I am born-again" or "I am a born-again christian."

Are we spending time hating each other, speaking evil of each other and keeping malice with each other? Is that Christ-like?

Are we spending time hating our leaders and doing nothing to correct the wrongs in society? Is that Christ-like?

Jesus said to a crowd about to kill a woman, "he among you without sin, let him cast the first stone." He then said to the woman, "Go and sin no more." What an exemplary life. Have we joined the crowd that's stoning and killing those that have erred? Is that Christ-like?

Are we seeing things go wrong in society and in the church and turn a blind eye and do nothing to correct the wrongs? Is that Christ-like?

Let us be truly born-again and have that spiritual rebirth Jesus talked about to Nicodemus. Let us change our ways from evil to God's ways. Let us go about doing good and healing all that are oppressed of the devil. Let us go about preaching, teaching and living the word of God.

Let us love all men created by God (black, white, brown, jew, gentile, single, married, divorced, separated, heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, christian, muslim, buddhist, pagan, atheist etc). Let us respect each other's beliefs and not feel threatened by each other's beliefs. Let us choose to love and respect each other regardless of whether we have the same beliefs and orientation or not.